ECU Relocation Kit
 

Is there any interest in a ECU relocation kit to put the ECU in the dash or trunk?
I'm going to relocate mine in the dash, however, I could just as easily produce extra parts when I have mine made. This would involve an extension harness to the ECU harness so no cutting wires would be needed.

It would be a complete kit with all the hardware, extension harness, and instructions. You'd probably be looking at around $400 due to the cost of having the harness and mounting hardware produced to mount it in the dash, and maybe an extra $100~$150 for a trunk mount.

These are rough estimates on cost all depending on what I can get the harnesses made for. I'll have to do some measurements with a mock-up before I have exacts, but I thought I'd see if anyone else was interested.

Be real careful - the RX-8 PCM is very sensitive to the length of some of its sensor wiring.
There is a good chance that it wont run correctly with the ESS and MAF wiring extended that far.

I have never experimented with wire lenghts in our car, would it be a signal qulity loss or a delay problem? It should be the first one but i don't know how much sense it makes translated :)

interesting...
Would that be a timing issue, or degradation of the signal?

EDIT:
bse50 beat me too it... lol

If it's a problem with signal strength, could always include a repeater or signal booster of some sorts.

well im interested, let me know if u can get it to work correctly

i would be interested in this if it worked and putting it in the glove box area

Think you guys are greatly under-estimating how "quickly" electricity travels. LOL

For every inch of wire you add, you add resistance. So a signal that's only 200mV to begin with can be greatly adjusted with a couple extra, even tenths, of a ohm resistance.

Why would you want to do this anyway?

You could use larger diameter wire too ....

I'm not underestimating anything... MM said that it would cause problems. I asked why, and he didn't reply. I would personally assume that it's a degradation of the signal, but he has more info on the topic than me.

As for why... cause it's in the way, and an eye sore under the hood.

Team,
I was thinking the same thing.

I'm going to just have to make a jumper wire and test extending the MAF wire I guess.

ECU is an eye sore? lol

yes, it's a big ugly black box under the hood, and I need the space for other plans.

I would also be worried about heat if you move it to the dash area.
Remember... the PCM box has an air duct to keep it cool.
So I would ensure the relocation isn't in a confined space that gets hot.

Compared to under the hood, under the dash should be greatly cooler. I would personally imagine that the duct work is only there because it's so hot under the hood.

also it makes more since for people needed that extra space for turbo setups and what not, to me when u add extra shit it just looks cluttered, and honestly when to take the ecu box apart it like a bunch of unwanted space

One downside to moving into the dash/trunk is the size of the hole you'd need to get it througt the firewall/passenger compartment, that's a good chunk of wires, four bundles w/connectors isn't it? Also aside from the possible added resistance of the wire needed to relocate, even more of a problem might be the added capacitance/inductance that tends to delay and distort signals. There's likely compensation built into the circuitry now for what's there, but if the interconnect is changed... might be some work to determine what additional compensation circuitry would be needed.

Beyond that ... go for it, would be great if it worked ;)

Moving it to the dash has got some downsides indeed, as MazdaManiac also mentioned.
Making a smaller box to free up some space in the engine bay could be another point worth discussing, the stock box is very deep and all the cooling ducts are not really needed!

Oh yea, another thing, there's more than the ECU in that box...buried down in the bottom is the power steering control box. If you want to get rid of the box, you'll need to move or rebox this as well.

Yep, that's exactly why I think that a smaller box to keep the electronics "waterproof" may be a better solution than complete relocation. Tilting them of about 90° and locking them to the side of the chassis shouldn't be too much of an issue. Too bad that i'm not that skilled so i couldn't fab a box alone :)

making the box smller would be nice too but i think one of the main issue of relocating it would be the harness go over to the engine from the yellow making it be in the way if some wanted to go turbo, but when going what smaller box it would just lower the harness even more i belive. It not the best piscture but an example